God’s Glory

These are some of the saddest words I have ever heard, even though I didn’t live in the day that they were said.  They are written in 1 Samuel 4:22, “And she said, ‘The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured.’”

This is one of the saddest events that took place in the Old Testament.  You may be asking yourself, how could this happen?  It happened because of sin, because Israel had turned away from God.  They thought they could defeat the Philistines because of their past victories, but that didn’t happen.  When a nation, any nation, turns away from God it ends up devastated and defeated.  In this case, they were badly defeated and lost the Ark of God to the Philistines.

I think it is a good thing to reflect on the past at times and recall what God has done in your life, but to try to live on past experiences will never be enough.  That is sort of like going to the well one day and drawing water and the next day going and no water comes out even though you can remember how good the water tasted yesterday.  You are thirsty today and need more water, but the well has run dry and there is no more water.  That is why I said yesterday’s experiences won’t be enough for today.

But this isn’t the end of the story.  I guess the Philistines thought they had it made, they had another god to add to the ones they already had, so they brought the Ark of God and set it in the house of Dagon, their god, only to find out the next day their god Dagon had fallen on his face.  They took him and set him in his place again only to find him the next morning on the ground with his head and the palms of his hands cut off, only the stump was left.  Then the hand of God was heavy against the Philistines and they were ready to get rid of the Ark, which they did.  You can read all about it in 1 Samuel chapters 5 and 6.  

For twenty years, sorrow gripped God’s people because it seemed like the Lord had forsaken them.  In chapter 7 Samuel becomes a judge and he turns the people’s hearts back to God.  Then there was another battle with the Philistines but this time the outcome was much different.  Read 1 Samuel 7:10-17, “Now as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. But the Lord thundered with a loud thunder upon the Philistines that day, and so confused them that they were overcome before Israel. And the men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, and drove them back as far as below Beth Car. Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, ‘Thus far the Lord has helped us.’

So the Philistines were subdued, and they did not come anymore into the territory of Israel. And the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. Then the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron to Gath; and Israel recovered its territory from the hands of the Philistines. Also there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.

And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. He went from year to year on a circuit to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah, and judged Israel in all those places. But he always returned to Ramah, for his home was there. There he judged Israel, and there he built an altar to the Lord.”

When the people repented, God fought for them.  When a nation repents and turns to God, God will forgive and bless that nation.  Look what happened to Nineveh when the people repented and the same thing happens with individuals also.  At one time this nation was a strong godly nation built on freedom of religion and Christian principles and values.  Our Constitution meant something, written by some of our founding fathers, but today it is looked on as outdated and not relevant by many of our leaders, and Christian values and principles are being taken away.  Prayer and Bible reading are prohibited in many of our schools and crime is on the rise because of such a bad economy.  Without honoring God we will keep spiraling down and down until there is nothing left but total anarchy and destruction.

But on the flip side we are getting closer to the Lord’s return and our departure to heaven to be with the Lord, praise the Lord!!  We need to take advantage of the time we have and win souls for the kingdom when the opportunity arises.  We need to be praying for our nation and for those that are in charge, that their eyes will be opened and the veil taken from their minds so that when they hear the truth they can and will receive it.  We need to pray for more workers to reap the harvest and to sow more seeds.  We also need to pray that everyone who calls themselves believers will humble themselves and pray and seek God’s face and repent if they need to, so that God will hear from heaven, forgive our sins and heal our land.  Repentance is the key to forgiveness and will bring about restoration.  Don’t forget we need to do our part.  Something to think about!  Have a super day and may God bless you and yours!!